BenC

Another one Duke Royalty Class http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/display.phtml?aid=294816

Great film. Love it. Thanks for the link

Hawksbury still shows £59,950.00 on apolloduck. You could buy Bletchley & Argus for £55,000.00

A sunny day makes all the difference! Still get confused by the Apolloduck 'Tug' description!

Cambourne Been for sale for a while

A little harsh I think! Have you never left a lock filling while you walk to the next lock in a flight so that it set, therefore avoiding the lock bollards that you know are to shallow to get to. Managed to help a boat last summer that cilled itself, the bow had started to go under, but the doors were shut and the vents were a few inches off the deck. Managed to drop the bottom paddles and slowly let water back into the lock before the water started to fill saloon. Also lucky that the self draining deck outlets were large. (doors closed while cruising isn't a bad idea) Mistakes happen, no one is immune! I would hate this to happen to anyone no matter what the circumstances

What about the wides between Apsley and Kings Langley. Long pound with plenty of room for mooring and reasonable depth along the bank. The Red Lion pub have a very large beer garden and are always up for money making opportunities. Apsley lock is only a short walk away with shops, restaurants and pubs as is Kings Langley. There is also the field next to the canal that is used in the summer months for carboot sales, and has hardcore paths for carparking I'm sure that the farmer would be up for this being used for a fee. Nash Mill community centre (although not much to look at) is also located next to the car boot field. I'm sure that the reach out boat project would help out if they could. PM me if I can help in any way Ben

Banstead and Bodmin will be there. 13 locks would be a crime not to!

Congratulations from Banstead and Bodmin. Be warned of the windy day! Did the butty doors always just have a flat door with a recess, rather than the raised panel of the motor?

Upon moving into Apsley Marina (then Bw owned, later it became BWML although our cheques were still signed to BW! )about 9/10 years ago, when it first opened, we were on a residential mooring and subject to paying council tax. The marina insisted that they were able to place overnight boats upon our poontoons when we were away, and that they could use our hook up! We decided to question that we were therefore eligable to pay the council tax and took the local authority to a tribunal. We compiled evidence, such as over-nighter boaters standing next to their boats on residential pontoons holding their receipts, money that the so called council tax payer (us) would never see. We won. To this day Apsley marina residential moorings do not pay council tax. I have heard that other marinas have tried a similar approach and not been successful, but I don't see why. Ask other moorers what they pay on their moorings within the marina. Don't be afraid to contest it and take it to a tribunal, but have hard evidence with you. We were charged Band A and got a nice little rebate once the case was won. Good luck

A boat festival with beer left I'm not sure I understand

That's the one and that's the house boat I mentioned. hard to get an further up stream. The whole of the creak below floods at a high tide. I've sat in a rowing boat on the mud before for 5 or 6 hours waiting for the tide to come back in. You sink up to your waste if you get out!

They could always fill with jerrycans, so the fuel issue would not matter. I think we are all keeping an eye out throughout the country, but unless drunk I have not seen any boats as fuzzy as this. A photo of the Bow wouldn’t go a miss

There is an old foundry up the river Carnon River, (Which joins the Fal Estury) This has been up for development for years, but never quite seems to get off the ground. There is also (much further up) Wheal Jane tin mine, some may remember a large scale environmental spill some 20 years ago where the pumps that kept the mine from flooding were turned off, the mines reservoirs then breached and the river was filled with all of the heavy metal from the mine, turning the River an eerie red colour, devastating the local mussel and oyster beds, but great fun to row across as a teenager. There is currently a house boat further up the river. He was recently taken to court but the council who claimed that he did not have planning permission as couldn’t move due to a road bridge. Waiting for the lowest tide of the year, he managed to float his boat under the bridge, take a few photos at high tide floating on the river and then get it back at the next low tide, proving that it was a usable boat not a static home! There are many side creaks in that area, but the Carnon is the only one that heads towards Perranworthal.

We have run a washing machine for years through our 3kw Victron from 3 x 100amp hour batteries, but the inverter does call for additional power (we use a 2kw Honda) or will go into overload. We live on a butty so are unable to run an engine at the same time, maybe if you do this you will be ok. We also have 2 battery banks, one always fully charged in reserve so that if you find yourself outside of houses or near other boats late at night, you can switch over and deal with recharging in the morning at a more sociable hour. Batteries fetch about £8 at the moment at the scrap yard

The motor that i was referring to didn't have an anser pin on its guwhale so that's probably the reason I had the problem of the butty overtaking and turning the boats. Thanks for pointing this out. I was purely passing on something that I have experienced while breasted with a butty. I'd say inexperience not incompetence! One is giving it a go and learning from your mistakes and the other is unable/unqualified to do a task (and rude)

I don't even want to get involved with this, but I can't help myself. Firstly that pound leaks very badly, has for a while. People are known to open a paddle so that the pound stays full over night, letting the summit drop so that Darren at Cow Roast marina is unable to get boats onto hard standing. Secondly, if I look ahead and see free lock bollards and an empty lock ahead of me, in a shallow pound with a boat the draws 3ft or more then I head for the lock, especially if its open! The next morning if the pound had dropped overnight, there would have been no point in trying to back out to pull boats off the bottom, as they would have been stuck fast, better to use the water from that lock and get the day started rather than cause any more hold ups. Should the original boats at the front of the queue not have been waiting in the lock or at least been on the bollards!

Didn't think of that! I was just going for the motor in the deepest water. Also if you bump into a moored boat, then you have the butty to hide behind!! Ben

You just beat me to that. Definitely motor on the port side. Ben

Good luck with your first trip It can be a quick learning curve!! We have had several mismatched pairs, one thing to remember if the butty is longer than the motor, then when you try and stop when breasted up, the butty can start to overtake and turn the boats. Can be useful when wanting to turn around, but cause problems when slowing to pass other boats, Hope I'm not telling you what you already know Ben

You are right about the gates swinging open. Maybe the gates should be fitted with weights like on some of the Avon locks. You can drop these to the ground once you close the gates and then they will not swing. Leaving the gates would work fine if they didn’t leak so badly! Just buy a Butty then you never have to wait

Most people in marinas don’t pay council tax either, lets please not even get started on that one, it can be hard enough talking to land lovers about that, let alone other boaters. A lot of boaters seem to have forgotten the etiquette of shutting gates. It’s just laziness. BW needs to enforce this with signs at every lock so that there is no excuse. Emu is usually very good at shutting gates. They passed me at lock 69a on Sunday and left the lock shut. But if they did leave the gates open then there is no excuse, boats that work the canal regularly, should be setting an example to others so that they see how things should be done. As far as CC go. Some may blur the law a bit and move within an area but keep their boat looking good, never pile things on the tow path and move every 2 weeks. Admittedly returning to that spot once or twice in a calendar year. Not the biggest crime in the world. Surly the real problem is the unlicensed, unloved doss boats, rubbish in the hedge, rubbish on the roof, and rubbish in the boat. Forgot to say, please see link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pyrotronicdisintegrator.gif If only

Why would we stop!

I think there’s about 20,000 of us already here dreaming of a way that we could afford to go back home!

I agree. Bring race into the discussion is sad and narrow minded. I work in Tottenham and every race has its goodens and baddens. I have also moored in the East of London may times and have never had any problems. My advice if someone approaches you is to; Start dragging one leg, lower your head, look up through your eyebrows and say “Llow it man, I aint want no Beef, your Butters init” and then kiss your teeth (suck in between your tounge and teeth) then you’ll be fine!!!! (Please don’t try this)!